Filing system



A. ST. C.- EDE.

FILING SYSTEM.

APPLICATIONFILED JULY 31 l9l9.

1,365,388. Patented Jan. 11,1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

I A. ST. C. EDE.

FILING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, m9.

Patented Jan. 11, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- ,UNITED STATES PATENT orrica.

.jAL swonrn s'r. CLAIREDE, or DUBUQUE, IOWA.

FILING SYSTEM.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that ,ALLswoRrrr b'r. :(JLAIR Enn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dubuque, inthe county of Dubuque and State of Iowa, have invented a new and'useful Improvement in- Filing Systems, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to filing systems or cabinets, and particularly to those having a rack and removable cards.

An object of this invention is to provide a filing-system or cabinet which will give easy access to any card desired WhlCh Wlll allow the cards to be readily inserted or withdrawn, as for adding data or 'for any other purpose.

Another object is toprovide a filing system having the fewest possible number of dissimilar parts, all of which are of simple construction and inexpensive to manufacture. i z i I 1 These and other objects which will appear from the specification are accomplished'by my invention which comprises among other things afiling cabinet havinga; rack, cards slidablein said rack; thesides of the rack acting as guides for said cards and aholder for each card. I

In another aspect my invention comprises a card holder for filing cabinets having a straight member with means for gripping a card such as returned or bent back ends.

Referring now to the drawings,

Figure l is a perspective view of a cabinet or case embodyingmy invention; F i 2 is a perspective view of a card holder, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a card; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of astop for the cards; Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 1, showing the cards and holders removed; Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view on the line 7-7 of Fig. 1; Fig. 8 is a modified holder.

I haveillustrated my invention in connection with a filing cabinet which consists preferably of a number of sections 10 placed back to back and edge to edge and maintained in this relation by means of end plates 11 and guide rods 12, the latter belng secured by means of thumb nuts 13,. Each cabinet section consists of a fiat back portion with short sides 14 which are turned up at right angles to the back portion. The

65 sides are then carried around as clearly I Specificationof Letters Patent. Patented J an 11, 1921 Application filed July 3, 1919. Serial No. 308,612.

shown in Fig. 5 so as to form a deep groove, the grooves on the two sides facing each other. Holders 16 are formed preferably of wire with return ends having a rounded or bulged portion 18 and a raised end portion 17. This raised end portion 17 extends in a plane slightly above that of the lower corner portion of the bend 18 and, as will be seen in Fig. 2, exerts a gripping action on the front face of card and causes an inward bend of the card with reference to the plane of such bend 18. The end portion helps retain itsown card by lateral pressure thereon, but does not touch the top of the next lower card. The pressure of the column as in raising or lowering is transmitted through the holders alone. The length of these holdportion 21 when the front section and the rear section 20 are brought near each other. At the bottom of each cabinet section is placed a wire stop 22 which preferably has bent ends 23 which are adapted to lie in the groove 15 and be soldered therein.

In operation the holdersv 16 are first placed transversely of the groove 15 and then the cards 19 are fitted downinto place as shown in Figs. 2 and 7. Owing to the semi-cylindrical section 21 of each card it has a tendency to grip the wire holder. This gripping action is also increased by the pressure which the long and short flaps of the card exert against the back of the section 10. This action is more clearly illustrated in Fig. 7. Because of this frictional action when any card or any number of cards are shoved up they will remain stationary at any point. The cards are placed one behind the other with only the upper portion of each exposed. The width of this exposed portion is determined by means of the returned ends 17 of the holders. We can thus vary the amount of the card exposed by varying the width of the gap in the rounded portions 18. The indices will be carried at the top of the card. This may consist of may be a number or the name of a town, depending of course upon the purpose for which the card cabinet is used.

The desired information is then carried upon the lower part of the card; just enough of the upper part of the card need be eX- posed to give the necessary .indicia. It is possible therefore to get a great many cards in a very limited space by means of my filing cabinet. By means of this cabinet the cards are made very readily accessible. Suppose for example it was desired to examine a card marked A, it is only necessary to place the finger upon the card so marked andraise it and all of the cards above it until the de sired card is completely exposed. The card may then be withdrawn by pushing directly upward upon it, the c: rd above it remaining suspended or held by the frictional action which I have previously explained.

It will readily be understood that a sys-- tem of this kind can very readily be expanded without changing the form of the section but merely by increasing the number thereof, by placing additional sections for instance side by side and increasing the length of the end strips 11.

lVhile I have shown and described but a single embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that it is capable of many modifications. Changes therefore inthe construction and arrangement may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as disclosed in the appended claims.

What I claim as new and by Letters Patent is:

1. A filing cabinet comprising a rack havdesire to secure ing a back, sides and a groove adjacent each side, a member having returned ends adapted to lie crosswlse in said grooves, a card adapted to be bent around said member and under said returned ends so as to place the card under flexure by bringing the lower portion of it agamst the back of said rack.

2. A filing cabinet comprising a rack havmg a back and. grooves frontlng each other and spaced from said back and from each which the bent portion of said cardextends,

said holderzbeing provided with meansfor 33 cal bent portion thereof.

4. A-..card holder forrfiling cabinets comprising amember having a. straight portion and; returned ends, said ends extendingin a plane above the lowermost portions of the bends in said returned ends of said holder.

5. A cardholder'for filingcabinets comprising a straight wire member provided with free ends. bent to:eXtend backwardly and slighftly above the plane of the lower.- mostportions of the bendsin said free'ends.

ALLSWORTH ST. CLAIR EDE.

ripping; said card below the semi-cylindri- 

